UPDATED Iran Appeal: Japan's Deportation of Jamal Saberi

UPDATE 31 MARCH: Mission Free Iran has posted a set of reports and interviews on the protest of 28 March.

The next demonstration will be today from 1-3 p.m. in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington as part of a "Global Day of Action". The organisers post, "Please remember: you are fighting to save Jamal, but you are also fighting:

— FOR thousands of Iranian and non-Iranian refugees worldwide, &

— AGAINST the Islamic Regime’s ongoing efforts to silence dissent outside its borders."


UPDATE 25 MARCH: Mission Free Iran has announced another protest in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington. Organised around the theme of "Give Cherry Trees, Not Refugees" (Japan gave the hundreds of cherry trees that bloom around Washington's Tidal Basin in the spring), the protest will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, 28 March.

MFI has also written an open letter to "Friends in Japan" asking them to "join with the global peoples’ movement" in support of Saberi.

UPDATE 23 MARCH: Mission Free Iran has posted Maria Rohaly's statement at the Sunday protest: "Japan must uphold refugee rights for Jamal Saberi and all others like him, according to international standards, and we extend this demand throughout the world wherever refugee rights are threatened.

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Mission Free Iran writes:

Japan has begun deportation procedures against prominent Iranian dissident and human rights activist Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei), a resident of the country for the past 18 years.

Japan’s effort to forcibly return an Iranian political activist constitutes a violation of the international principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits forcibly returning a person to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened. Mr. Saberi has a well-founded fear of persecution by the Islamic regime. He warrants recognition as a political refugee and merits protections under UN agreements on the Status of Refugees, to which Japan is a signatory.

The Saberi case has global implications: If Japan flouts human rights standards and international principles on the status of refugees, consequences for refugees worldwide will be dire. We consider especially the impact of Japan’s actions on thousands of new Iranian refugees surviving precariously in Turkey.

Protesters will gather outside the Japanese Embassy in Washington DC on Sunday, 21 March at 1 p.m. to demand that Japan set the appropriate international precedent in this matter by freeing Jamal Saberi, stopping the deportation proceedings, formally establishing Saberi’s refugee status, and implementing appropriate protections to preserve his life.

Iran: Gender Issues and the Green Movement

A quick follow-up to the Washington hearing. I mis-handled a question from Maria Rohaly about gender issues yesterday. (She has rightly hauled me up on this.) I took her question as one specifically on the hijab --- primarily because that issue is so often used in Western press to represent women's concerns and because it had come up in conversations on my trips to Iran), thus missing the opportunity to say this:

Video: “Iran at a Crossroads” Conference (10 March)
The Latest from Iran (11 March): Marathon

The Green Movement is not a single movement for rights; optimally, it should be a political intersection for all of those movements. Earlier this week, coinciding with International Women's Day, women activists in Iran pointed to issues regarding the family, marriage, division of property, and economic rights. Just as the opposition faces the challenge of putting forth the concerns of the labour movement, so it must engage with these concerns.


No doubt there will be the question of the dynamic of this engagement and the current opposition calls for electoral reform and remedy of post-election abuses. In one case this weekend, Iranian female journalists declared that their first priority was the release of women detainees.

Those decisions, amongst others, are for the movement inside Iran. Yet Maria Rohaly was right to put forth the point that political tactics should not mean a deferral of these concerns.

Earlier in the morning, I asserted that the Green Movement is simply an umbrella term for a wide range of opposition groups and their aspirations and concerns. In the case of gender issues, as well as others, that umbrella should always protect those aspirations and concerns and never cover them up.

In this, as in so much about Iran, I am a student. I was fortunate to go to Tehran just as the first Woem's Studies programmes were being established, and I have been fortunate to learn from numerous colleagues and friends since then. There is a Scarf Movement, but there are also campaigns to convert the Islamic Republic's achievements on literacy and access of women to higher education into equality in the workplace as well as the home. There is serious discussion, as Maria Rohaly, about the acquisition of rights given a Constitution that many see as a constraint on, rather than a vehicle for, justice and fairness.

At the end of the day, I think I have to acknowledge that I have much more learning to do. I hope, however, that the recognition of the issue points --- as so much has in these last nine months --- to the ongoing development of the Green Movement.